space weather refers to the conditions on the sun in the solar wind and in the near-earth environment. our ability to understand the sun/earth system is of grow withing importance to our nation's economy and national security. the electric power industry is susceptible to geomagnetically induced currents which can overload unprotected power grids and result in widespread power outages. in the spacecraft industry, intense geomagnetic storms have the capacity to disrupt normal operations such as satellite communication and, of course, they pose risks to our astronauts in space. in addition, space weather can cause irregularities in the signals from our very important global positioning system. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, or noaa, is the official source for space weather predictions for the nation. several of nasa's research satellites have become an essential part of our nation's space weather prediction system providing very important data for determining the space weather conditions. one such mission is the advanced composition explorer which sits in the solar